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Reaction to Skechers Super Bowl ad shows animal welfare movement still has some educating to do

I’ve watched more than one morning news show today featuring predictable discussions about last night’s Super Bowl ads. But I’m seeing too many talking heads praise – sadly – the Skechers ad as being funny or cute because it featured dogs. I heard one individual say she liked it because of she loves dogs.

Ugh! … Crap! – It’s like fingernails on a chalkboard. So it seems we have still have some distance to go in educating more people about animal welfare – and in this case greyhound racing. The movement needs to ramp up the effort, as the Giants did Sunday night, to spread the message of compassion for animals.

Skechers made a huge blunder by highlighting greyhound racing. This much is obvious. But I’m sure the execs are loving the post-game exposure through people who are completely unaware of the horrors within the industry.

A columnist on BleacherReport.com blundered in a big way this morning – a huge blunder. Alex Kay wrote – “” It’s seriously not a big deal at all that the shoe company lightheartedly showed a greyhound race. It was not promoting euthanizing dogs or anything crazy like that. “”

Oh Mr. Kay. I realize you probably didn’t know that racing greyhounds are routinely “euthanized” by the thousands every year – due to injuries on the tracks and when they are no longer valuable to the industry. More are being sent out to rescue groups in recent years, but only a percentage of the dogs the industry deems “adoptable.”

And I use the term “euthanized” cautiously, because news stories have shown dogs being trucked away to be shot; others found dead at the bottom of lakes and others found starving in the desert with their ears cut off (to prevent identification of their ear tattoos).

So it is absolutely about something “crazy like that” – dogs being killed in racing.